At Ron Paul rally, no Mitt Romney endorsement

Four days before Romney accepts the Republican nod for president, the Texas congressman didn’t even offer a grudging semi-endorsement of his ex-rival in the 2012 presidential race before several thousand boisterous supporters at the University of South Florida Sun Dome.

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Instead, the Texas congressman used the six-hour rally to close his presidential campaign with a 77-minute speech that celebrated what he accomplished in 2012, unapologetically defending his libertarian philosophy and calling for his movement to go forward as he rides off into the sunset.

While top GOP officials canceled the first day of events in Tampa because of Tropical Storm Isaac, Paul supporters were undaunted, gathering in droves to hear the Texas lawmaker, his son — Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul — and prominent Paul activists from the caucus states where Paul did best.

Paul’s speech focused on the issues that animate his supporters on the margin of the GOP coalition, from old hobby horses like ending the Federal Reserve to new causes like defending WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from prosecution. He talked about big issues, like ending the war on drugs, and small pet issues, like allowing Americans to drink raw milk.

Paul started his speech with a joke about being invited at the last minute to speak at the Republican National Convention on Monday night — which was canceled because of the weather. But Paul is well aware that he was denied a speaking slot during prime time, though his son had been slotted for Monday night but has been moved to Wednesday.

Paul doesn’t control the five state delegations he needs to be formally nominated at the convention. After months of détente, he was obviously peeved about an unexpected push by the Romney campaign during the Republican National Convention rules committee meeting Friday to bind delegates to whichever candidates win a state in 2016.

“They’ve learned how to bend rules, break rules and now they want to rewrite the rules,” Paul said. “They’ve overstepped the bounds.”

Paul received close to 2 million votes for president during the 2012 primary season, but he guessed that he would have received two or three times more than that if he had run outside the Republican Party.

Ron Paul injected excitement, new ideas, vitality, and energy into the Republican Party. He got the public debating monetary policy, national defense, and terror strategy. I watched his ending speech at the rally and was impressed (as always) by what he had to say.

University of Colorado analysis predicts Romney win in presidential race

The analysis, released today, by political science professors Kenneth Bickers of CU-Boulder and Michael Berry of CU Denver, is based on economic and other factors within each of the 50 states. This same study has correctly predicted the winners of the last eight presidential elections, starting with the 1980 election won by Ronald Reagan.

The analysis is summarized as follows, “President Barack Obama will win 218 votes in the Electoral College, short of the 270 he needs. And though they chiefly focus on the Electoral College, the political scientists predict Romney will win 52.9 percent of the popular vote to Obama’s 47.1 percent, when considering only the two major political parties.”

More irrational puppy love for Ron Paul from a press too smitten to realize that the primary is over and Ron Paul finished without a single Primary win. Pre-teen adulation of Justin Bieber is nothing when compared to the year long swoon-fest from the Main Stream press, so desperate to see Ron Paul as the second coming of Ross Perot that they managed to convince themselves that he can still upset the apple cart at the Republican Convention if only they wish real hard, like a bunch of twelve year old girls expecting a pony at Christmas. Sorry folks... Ron Paul is just another entry in the long list of great disappointments...

That photo makes the Paul convention look like a Maoist cult of personality get together.

Got a big kick out of featherweight Rand Paul quoting Tom Paine in the weekly GOP radio address on Saturday. Typical of the clueless Tea Party types who try to reduce our Founding Fathers to two-dimensional cartoon characters.

-- Tom Paine was a freethinker and Deist who disdained organized religion.

-- Tom Paine was one of the first to call for a guaranteed minimum wage.

Tom Paine 1, Rand Paul 0.

Ron, please take your son with you when you leave, along with your whimsical dingbat 19th century Austrian school financial philosophy calling for a return to the gold standard. Reportedly the GOP is going to make a gesture in this direction by calling for a study of the gold standard! The gold standard! Perhaps they've also discovered the secrets of alchemy and can turn Paul's tin foil hats into gold.

I wonder if Ayn Rand was a communist mole? A propagandist to control the message of the opposition to communism to make it look unworkable and appalling so that most people would run in the other direction. It is interesting to me that at the height of her popularity in 1981, at the same time that the Soviet Union was beginning to collapse from within, that she should make a statement that her ideological children, the Libertarians, are a "monsterous, disgusting bunch of people".

Had Ron Paul been running, the election would have been a clear choice between more of the same and a move toward a more open and less corrupt political process. But since neither political party wants real change, it's once again a choice between one disappointment and a candidate who will likely be much, much worse.

Republican insiders didn't embrace Ron Paul because he wanted to make the political process more open and would have hit back at secret, special interests. They chose Mitt, who doesn't have any ethical hangups to speak up and is fine with letting others determine his policies.

But imagine if the Republican party chose Ron Paul. They'd become the party of the future and the Democrats the party of the past. As is, the Republicans have chosen the past, digging in on a very anti-progressive stance which won't serve them well in years to come. Despite policies that were very middle of the road and moderate conservate, the Democrats are still the most progressive party, surprisingly. Progressives helped push Ronald Reagan to victory, but so far, progressives are seeing nothing to like about Mitt. Just another corporate shell, smiling on cue and unable to decide how he's supposed to think on issues.

yep we take our votes and vote for Gary Johnson-Mittens and Obama just represents more of the same. protection of the medical and militray complexes and the empire. and the support of the ruling class. Ron was a breath of fresh air as oppose to the stale and dead air of both the republican and democratic parties

yep we take our votes and vote for Gary Johnson-Mittens and Obama just represents more of the same. protection of the medical and militray complexes and the empire. and the support of the ruling class. Ron was a breath of fresh air as oppose to the stale and dead air of both the republican and democratic parties